Trailer hitches mounted on towing vehicles have been in use since long for towing/pulling trailers, and similar vehicles. Numerous factors including load distribution, proper hook up, weight capacities, hitch capacities, electrical light hookups, and the like, are to be considered before pulling a trailer. Once, a trailer begins to move the driver must deal with increased reaction times, lane clearances, high winds, and reduced gas mileage. The above-mentioned problems are aggravated when the driver has to deal with differently sized trailers. Connection to such trailers may require differently sized balls and hitch heights. As such, the drives may need to carry differently sized balls and different hitch bars to which the balls are attached. Additional space is required to accommodate the balls and the hitch bars; and the balls and the hitch bars have to be stores, such that, they are easily accessible. Moreover, proper wrenches are required for changing the balls. Also, changing the balls places undue stress on the couplings in the trailer hitches.
Developments have been seen in the field of trailer hitches.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,494,477 discloses an automatic trailer hitch coupling apparatus having a hitch bar receiver mounted on a platform at the rear end of a towing vehicle, the hitch bar receiver having a square cross section and a flanged rear end into which a hitch bar is removably inserted. A winch have an extendable and retractable cable is mounted on the towing vehicle proximate the receiver and a cable having a cable lead is fed outwardly from the receiver. A hitch bar for coupling within the hitch bar receiver has a front portion connected to a rear portion with a universal joint; the front portion is connected to the cable lead with a quick release and lock system. The hitch bar is integrally connected to a hitch tongue having a horizontal portion on which a hitch ball is mounted. The apparatus does not have provisions for accommodating differently sized balls for pulling differently sized trailers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,133,572 discloses ball joint type trailer hitch which comprises a ball assembly and a ball receiving assembly comprising a body forming a ball receiving end having formed therein a generally spherical cavity truncated at the bottom thereby forming a passage for the shaft when the ball is in the cavity, a ball insertion and removal opening intersecting the cavity thereby forming a passage between the opening and the cavity for permitting the ball to be inserted into the opening and moved distally into the cavity, ball locking means supported in the passage for selective movement from an unlocked position adjacent the proximate end of the body to a locked position in engagement with the ball in the cavity, and means for selectively fixing the ball locking means in engagement with the ball. The trailer hitch does not provide efficient means for pulling differently sized trailers.
None of the prior art trailer hitches efficiently addresses the problems with regard to pulling differently sized trailers. Accordingly, what is needed is a trailer hitch system that may be adjusted in a fast, easy, convenient, and reliable manner for pulling differently sized trailers.